The Oilers enter Nashville in the midst of a dangerous dance routine; one step forward, two steps sideways and one step back. They wrapped up a crucial four-game homestand with only one win and capped it off with a dreadful performance against the Blues.

Their only victory came against the Predators, and if the Oilers have any hope of staying in the playoff race, they will need a victory in Nashville tonight.

The Predators handed the Oilers their worst loss of the season, 6-0, back on March 8th, so if you combine that with their woeful effort on Saturday you'd expect the Oilers to put forth a much better effort tonight.

LINEUP

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took the morning skate and he will play. In order to get him on the roster the Oilers had to send Teemu Hartikainen down to OKC.

And with RNH coming back Lennart Petrell will come out of the lineup. I don't think the line combinations matter as much as the Oilers finding a combination of hustle, smarts, effort and consistency.

YAKUPOV ICETIME

I asked Ralph Krueger to share his thoughts on how he uses Nail Yakupov in the 3rd period.

JG: Are you trying to protect Yakupov late in games, or are you concerned about his defensive awareness?

RK: He has our confidence. He’s an 18 year old, he’s going to be playing in this role, probably very similar, for the rest of the year. Not For lack of ability or will, he’s very responsible without the puck now. He’s trying to play the team game all of the time. We’re happy with him, but he’s an 18 year old and down the stretch the hierarchy has it in a way that we have more experience in other positions and other players. When you’re reduced to six to nine forwards and you’re trying to close games up and take them either into overtime or finish them with a lead, he understands that it’s just not his time yet. It was no different when we went back a few years to the roles that Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle had to now being able to play in those minutes.

But it’s nothing against Nail, we all know that putting a player of that age in the lineup has its unique challenges, and I think that we’ve been able to use him very well and we’re happy with the minutes that he’s played.

JG: What about in overtime when it’s 4-on-4?

RK: We just have a lot of confidence in our penalty shooting ability. We’ve had some troubles 4-on-4 during the season, so we did have him playing if you think back. And there were some 4-on-4 breakdowns that cost us games that were extremely painful, and so we’ve kind of gone with more experience there. Those are gut feelings, whether you have 8 guys, or whether you end up going with 6. And he just wasn’t in the top 6 mix the last game, but he could be the next one. There’s nothing wrong with Nail playing there, but there’s a defensive element there and a risk reward. I’ve been in situations before where you play three forwards and one defenceman and just go for it.

But again, we believe in our ability also to win in penalty shots and we just felt the way that that game had been going, and the way that San Jose had been pushing us through the last part of the game that our chances might have been better. But we did play one of our best 4-on-4 periods, I thought, this season. They had 0 shots on our net and we had a couple of scoring chances, so I thought it was actually pretty good overtime period.

JG: How do you balance the feeling as a coach from game to game? You mentioned how right now you’ve got some veteran guys, and when it’s a tight game you'd lean towards them. Against San Jose after that shift in the third period when he had two big hits and got the crowd and bench energized, yet he didn’t see the ice again. How do you balance it? Is it just a gut feel, do you have a plan going into the 3rd period, or do you go from game to game and switch it that easy?

RK: I have all of the numbers and I’m a numbers man. I have them in my head and I’m working them down as the game evolves. I’ve got nine forwards in my head. On the one side I’ve got the green side; that means we need goals. The other side is the red side, we’re trying to shut a game or close it down, I’ve got nine forwards in my head and then going down to the last four minutes I’ve got six forwards. It’s a game to game thing. It really truly is conversations that we have with Bucky and Freddy between periods coming from above. It is final conversations with Steve (Smith) while we’re in those TV timeouts so I get some input from around me, and then the stomach just really takes you down the stretch. And you go with the players who really feel good that night for that situation. "

Yakupov was on the ice for two OT losses, on February 04th and 06th. He did lose his man, Tanev, vs. the Canucks but he made no mistake on the Jagr game-winner. We can agree or disagree with Krueger's responses, but I respect him for taking the time to express his thoughts on Yakupov. I do agree with the coach on bringing him along slowly in regulation, but considering Krueger admitted Yakupov has worked extremely hard at becoming more responsible at ES, I'd look at giving him a shift in OT when there is more room to be creative.

QUICK HITS

Why is Sam Gagner having his best NHL season? A big reason is because of a guy named Andy O'Brien. Read more here.

If you honestly believe the Oilers are better off moving out veterans and replacing them with unproven youth, then you can expect the Oilers to remain near the bottom of the western conference moving forward. The Oilers need to find PROVEN NHL players, not more "maybe," "might be," or "what if" type players.

I'm not saying the Oilers can't move a veteran or two, but the return is likely more prospects and picks. These trades won't fix the Oilers' problems immediately. The Oilers need more experience, more consistency in their competitiveness and they need some size/skill in their top nine.

The Oilers will be competitive when their best players are equal to the best players on the other teams. The 4th line doesn't win games for the Penguins, Blackhawks or Ducks. Their best players do, and until the Oilers best players are mature and have more experience the Oilers won't win. That isn't a knock on their young kids, it is just a fact.

Case in point. The Capitals have won 5 of 7 and are suddenly two points out of the playoffs. Alex Ovechkin has 7 goals and 11 points in those 7 games. To win consistently in the NHL you need production from your top lines, top defenders and goalies. Focusing on the woes of the Oilers 4th line is a great distraction, but it isn't the main problem in Edmonton.

A stellar quote from Ovechkin courtesy of Corey Masisak from NHL.com: "Right now I'm scoring goals and I'm king of the world. Couple weeks I was almost in the toilet. Maybe [they] forgot to flush me."

Today is the last day to help my hometown, New Sarepta, win the right to host a concert, but more importantly raise money to build a new arena. Do me a favour and take 30 seconds and vote here for New Sarepta. Thanks.

The Oilers play their remaining 18 games in a span of 34 days. They have four sets of back-to-back games and they only get two days off between games three times. The Oilers will have to play unbelievably well to have a shot at the playoffs.

If you were GM of the Oilers what moves would you make? Now you can show your intellect with www.websimhockey.com. It is a 100% web-based, multi-player hockey simulator. You take on the role of the General Manager of a virtual hockey team. You manage the various aspects of your team (drafts, trades, lineups, coach strategies, negotiations and contracts signings, arena construction, tickets, beer, hot dog and parking costs, and much more). Properly managing your team and its finances will ensure your success. The first 12 Nations readers who email wsh.info@websimhockey.comwith "Nations promo" as the subject line will get a free trial. Good luck.

This is an awesome beer commercial. I'm sure most of you have a buddy that reminds you of the guy brushing his teeth.

<strong>TONIGHT.....</strong>

TONIGHT...

GAME DAY PREDICTION: In the last three meetings between these teams in Nashville one of them scored six goals. The Oilers got blanked 6-0 this year, but won 6-3 and 6-2 last year. I'm a fan of offence so I'm hoping that trend continues. The Oilers surprise us with a 6-3 win.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Ales Hemsky scores twice thus heating up discussions over whether the Oilers should trade him before April 3rd.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: During intermission Sportsnet will feature "trade watch," and instead of Ryan Jones' name coming across the prompter it will read Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Even though the hosts will say it was an error, many will take to twitter and blogs suggesting destinations for Nugent-Hopkins. Seriously, some will believe that moving RNH would be a good move.

One of Canada's most versatile sports personalities. Jason hosts The Jason Gregor Show, weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m., on TSN 1260, and he writes a column every Monday in the Edmonton Journal. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JasonGregor

We need to use the give and go, they have excellent lateral support in the d-zone so we need to use the give and go to make them adjust so we can catch them in transition and break their lateral support. We need to attack at different levels .
And we need to stop trying to hit the backdoor guy with the rebound from that stupid wrister I keep seeing from Halls line.
Attack them down the middle useing the give and go with short crisp passes. Then repeat.

Ha ha ha ha. We wont make it to the shootout, we are desperate so Ralph will probably pull Dubby with five minutes to go so we can go for the winning goal.

We are seeing a nice balance in penaltys from the refs, man we should put the pedal down and hit them down the middle and pile on their goalie.

It works to our favor to increase the number of penaltys tonight so lets get the hell moving.

We need to get aggressive, on the PK, 5 on 5, everywhere, we need our d-men to rush the puck out immediatly and we need to attack them with long breaKout passes and give and gos down the middle with support.

We need to speed the game up, the Preds are trying to slow it down on us. we need faster playaction initiation when we have possesion of the puck a faster transition to offense.

We might want to ask ourselves why we signed Brown in a game like this one, this is our last grasp after all.

Maybe if we stap a 5lb weight to Halls forearm
we will stop taking those weak-kneed waste of a possesion wrister he uses, my Grandmother hits harder with her purse than he hits the net with that shot form the perimeter, he needs to take it to the middle or give it to someone who will, or grow some balls and take it there himself, Hall is looking really gunshy this year, he has lost his threat of going to the net off rushes, even Hemmer does that, Eberle does that, but not Taylor Hall, he thinks the job is done to soon and needs to STOP that rebound play he is trying to hit, we are not coming into the zone fast enough through the n-zone to use that play, just take it to the net at the end of the rush, jesus, or we need to put MPS up there and drop Hall down.

Where did I say they should stick to status quo? I said they can change low-end guys, but that doesn't alter the major weaknesses of the team. They have to switch key parts of their roster, not edge guys, if they want to improve.

Toronto hasn't made the playoffs in 7 years and now they are great. Okay.

Montreal missed one year...they didn't trade away veterans for picks, and have those picks help them. They signed Prust, brought in two rookies, shipped Cole for Ryder and got a healthy Markov.

So your comparables have no bearing on your strategy to replace perimeter vets with better perimeter veterans. And unless the Oilers get vets who can play key roles, they won't improve very quickly. You need vets who can make a difference not just 4th line guys or 3rd pairing defenders.

Okay...I guess it's time for rebuild 101.

Lets take a look at what Dean Lombardi did in LA (and what Tallon did in Chicago although you can look up those transactions your self.

Dean Lombardi took over the reins in LA in 2006.

For those not inclined to look it up, that was 6 years before he won a cup.

The team he inherited has finished out of the playoffs for 3 consevutive seasons and it took him a year to convoke LA management that he needed their support to burn it to the ground an rebuild.

The team he inherited had the following roster:

D:

Lubomir Visnovsky

Joe Corvo

Brent Sopel

Mattias Nordstrom

Tim Gleason

Nathan Dempsey

Mike Weaver

F:

Craig Conroy

Pavol Demitra

Alex Frolov

Mark Parrish

Derek Armstrong

Sean Avery

Eric Belanger

Dustin Brown (just drafted)

Jeremy Roenick

Tom Kotsopolous

Jeff Cowan

George Parros

G:

Mathieu Garon

Jason Labarbera

You will of course note that only one player on theta team, Dustin Brown, who was drafted in 2003, remained with the cup winning team.

Jonathan Quick was drafted in 2005, a year before Lombardi took over but was hardly a sure bet at that time.

Anze Kopitar was also in the system after being drafted 11th overall in 2005.

Once Lombardi had convinced his ownership that a full rebuild was necessary, he began stockpiling picks, some his own but he also started moving out underperforming veterans for picks and younger players.

He selected the following players with his multiple draft picks.
(I'll only include players who have had some impact in the NHL

Nice PP, even if they didnt connect, puck possesion, support, and good decisions w the passes. Yak looked beastally good, not like an 18yo, oh ya hes not(unless your RK)

I agree , and it needs to produce goals tonight, special teams will be the difference tonight.

Yakupov is a nice addition, he is a physical player and adds a nice dimension to the line he is on. Right now we need him to be with Gagner learaning how to be a pro athlete at the NHL level. In two years he will be playing with Nuge regularly without a doubt.

All we need to do is implement the three pass rule, never more than 3 passes on the PP without a shot, it is retarded to overpass on the PP when you have a numbers advantage in a sport where a numbers advantage is the most lethal advantage you can find. We need to definately work it around but we also need a defined limit to the wasted time, we need a quick set up and then we need to use that numbers advantage to get to rebounds, this means we want our perimeter shots coming from the middle of the ice not the wings, no angled perimeter shots, just straight down the pipes so we get better rebounds and support.

I think it's time for the mercy hook. Not just Dubbie either. Lots of tools need to be replaced from this joke of a tool box. Oilers are disgraceful including: upstairs, players, coaching and everyone behind the scenes. What a frustrating group the Oil has become

We might want to use a stacking tactic through the n-zone as they are looking to make contact and gain superior position off of that hitting so they are on us like white on rice, they arent playing a fast paced game so we might as well stack three guys and just take it at them for a change, just go right at the first pred near the puck and allow him to make contact but at the last second spin around and turn so you can protect the puck and make a relay to the man behind you, just do this twice and you are at the net and will have picked one d-man and a forward out of the playaction.

I don't understand how when the Oilers are in the attacking zone and the play is about to die I always see more preds then Olier's which i kinda understand. Then when the paly goes back the other way it always seems like it's an odd man rush or at least 2 on 2. It seems like some of the Oilers players just disapper.

I don't understand how when the Oilers are in the attacking zone and the play is about to die I always see more preds then Olier's which i kinda understand. Then when the paly goes back the other way it always seems like it's an odd man rush or at least 2 on 2. It seems like some of the Oilers players just disapper.

I've noticed this all season as well. No system, no support. By far the easiest team to play against in the entire league.

kruger will be fired this week . Bring on ruff. I feel bad for our players . Our coaches and management suck . How long is this rebuild ? 7 years and no improvements. what does iambi need to do to get fired. I refuse to buy anything related to the oilers before someone is fired.

Anybody who thinks Dubnyk is a legit number 1 goaltender is crazy. Big time goalies make big save in big games and Dubby in my mind has only stole 1 game in Columbus this season and has pretty much sucked since then.

Anybody who thinks Dubnyk is a legit number 1 goaltender is crazy. Big time goalies make big save in big games and Dubby in my mind has only stole 1 game in Columbus this season and has pretty much sucked since then.

Seriously? Which goal should he have stopped? As the " great " DSF says, good grief.

We need to keep the d-zone exits the same and the n-zone traverses the same but as soon as we get the puck over their blueline , everyone must flood their zone and go to random hotspots and shooting areas, and the puck carrier must be the triggerman that iniates our offens on his own and randomly, we just want him to stretch the defense out a bit by puckhandeling a little to force their defense to transition a few times and stretch out and then he needs to make a pass/shot between those transitions, remember the support men are all beating the defense to the hotspots because they are just sprinting there immediatly and the puck carrier isnt wasting much time getting the pass/shot off because he doesnt need for set plays to develop he can fire it at any time with equal effect because all of his support is in prime areas and moveing from one to the next randomly, its a percentages play.

Lets go for it, we need the offense.

This is a simple adjustment, just allow the puck carrier to be the triggerman every possesion, and mix it up letting any and everyone be that triggerman, just smoothly work the zone transitions until you hit the blueline then everyone sprint to hotspots and get your heads up because the pass/shot is coming fast.

Seriously? Which goal should he have stopped? As the " great " DSF says, good grief.

Agreed. Dubby is so not the problem. Stops a freaking breakaway and then less then a minute later some guy I have never heard of makes Fistric and Potter look like Junior B defenders. The Klein goal was a goal on 29 of the top 30 goalies in the NHL. Lundquist might stop that. People got to stop expecting Dubby and Khabby to stop point blank opportunities and have a .935 save percentage.

The first goal Dubnyk should of had, the second one he gave up on the play,I'll give you guys the third goal he had no chance. But really you people think Dubby is a number 1 goalie, his back up tonight(Habby) is a better goalie positionally.Just watch Dubby he is a flopping fish. Brutal .Don't get me wrong the D is brutal too, but a true number 1 goalie steals games and Dubby doesn't

Were you expecting anything else? It's his first yr. in the NHL if he is still a disaster 5 yrs. from now then it will be a bad move. Gotta give him some time to mature and that goes for a most of the core. All great players..... but not just yet.

At the beginning of the yr. I was optimistic that because of the schedule situation that perhaps just maybe this team could take advantage of it and make playoffs but now I have to be realistic and hope they at least finish ahead of Calgary but that is even hoping for too much. So, so be it, we finish in the bottom 5 and pick a center that will eventually help.

With a little luck we fire Mr. Dithers and hire Mr. Burke and perhaps start making moves to really improve the team.

blaming the goalie is hilarious...this is one of the most offensively challenged teams in the nhl and the oilers make them look like the 76Canadians...and how about no response to that knee given to eberle in the first...this is a baaaaaadly coached hockey team...honesty its so sad